• Let not your hearts be troubled – Jesus, in the upper room, now is preparing his disciples for his departure. He had told them three times already in the coming weeks and months that he was going to go to Jerusalem, that he would be arrested, tried, convicted, and killed. He told them these things ahead of time knowing that they would struggle with this information, especially when it came, but it was also to point to the facts of who he is – that Jesus IS the Christ of God – the anointed one of Yahweh from Genesis 3. He is a true prophet, he is the true priest, and the true king of all creation.
• Believe in God / In me – Jesus here declares himself to be God again. He makes it clear that the promises that he makes are as real and trustworthy as those made by God in history past.

v 2-3 – “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that were I am you may be also.”

• This refers to the steps of the Jewish rite of marriage. The man who is betrothed to a wife would leave her to prepare a place for her. he would prove his worth and the love he had for her by building a room for them, either in a separate dwelling or, most likely, in his father’s house. This room would be their marriage room where they would first consummate their marriage, and it was proof that he was intent on making her a formal part of his family. The husband would then come, typically without warning so his wife would be always ready and always watching and take her to his home where the marriage feast would be held. Then they would go into this marriage bed, they would consummate their union, and she would officially become his wife – a formal part of his family, forever accepted as an official representative of the whole.
• There are many allusions which are built on this idea – the “marriage supper of the Lamb”, that we must “abide” (live and remain) with God as He abides with us.
• The facts of what Jesus says are clear –
  • The Father’s house – refers to heaven
  • Prepare a place – Jesus has committed to us that we are his and the he is ours
  • I will take you to myself – Jesus’ promises, bound on the first verse, are secure and sure. Jesus will take us to himself because we belong to him.
  • Where I am you may be also – our eternal destination is with God in heaven forever. We will share in the fellowship of the Father and the Son in glory. This is the eternal hope of every Christian – those who have “fallen asleep” (the Christian euphemism for death) and those who remain until he returns.

v 4 – “And you know the way to where I am going.”

• The way – Jesus concludes this statement with what can be a little confusing if you don’t know the intent behind the words. Jesus had repeatedly used the terms that we, who are Christ’s will live according to his commands – that we would live lives bearing fruit for the kingdom. That a “good tree” (those who are empowered by the Spirit and redeemed) will bear “good fruit” (that which is beneficial to the Church as a whole, to the individual, and to the glory of God). The “way”, which Christian would later take on as a description of the Christian faith (Acts 9:2; 19:9,23; 24:14,22) – That which defined the Christian way of living (Romans 12-15) and the facts that we all agree.
• The facts of Jesus the Christ:
  • We agree that he exists
  • We agree that what he said is true
    • About Himself
    • The Father
    • The Kingdom
    • The promises of what will come to take place in time to come
    • The promises of what will occur to those who are in His kingdom
    • The promises of what will occur to those who are outside of faith in His name
    • The promises of the Spirit that are applied to us
  • We agree that what he has accomplished on the cross for us is both sufficient (to cover all of our sins – past, present, and future), and efficient (in that it is applied to our lives)
• The knowledge of what God has done for his elect through the work of Jesus Christ, and that he will come again in glory to take those who are his to him.

v 5 – “Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’”

• As we have discussed before, the Apostles, while well meaning, were still fixing their eyes on this temporal realm. They had been taught for generations that the coming savior sent from God – the Son of David – would be a conquering king who would crush the political enemies of Israel and set up Israel (and the Jewish people) as the rulers over this creation. These things WILL take place, but it is the elect of God, in the old testament and the new, who are the true Israel of God (Romans 9-11) and who God will setup as judges and rulers over the land (1 Cor 6:3). They didn’t understand that Jesus was to be the suffering servant of Isa 53 first – and that this role is the one that establishes all the rest.
• Thomas, looking merely on worldly standards, is asking for a GPS track to the physical location where Jesus is going.

v 6 – “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

• I am – This is the 6/7 time where John records Jesus’ “I am” statements – these are statements which declare definitively that Jesus is defining, with no equivocation, that he and he alone is the only one in all of time and truth who is the way to heaven.
• The truth – There is no truth that exists outside of the facts of Jesus. Man’s method for salvation is to try to do “enough” to please God – that if we are 51% good, and 49% bad then we can some way slide into God’s heaven, and that we would have purchased our own salvation by our own methods. Jesus, however, is the only truth – there is nothing that exists outside of him and he is the one who determines that which is true. His truth, the real truth, demands direct obedience. There is no other way.
• The life – Life exists at the whim of Jesus the Creator King. He is the one who spoke and the universe leapt into existence. He is the one who is the exact representation of the glory of God the Father – he is the one who causes life to exist in this world. Therefore, leaning into Jesus is leaning into that which personifies life in its most truest form. There is no life which exists outside of that which exists in Christ.
• No one – There is no way, no truth, and no life which exists outside of that which stems from, is fed by, and finds its completion in Jesus the Christ. No salvation exists for men outside of that found in Christ and in the truth laid down by Jesus the Christ. Well meaning people who seek their own truth find only that which is empty, worthless, and useless.
• To the Father – The end goal of man is to worship and to glorify our creator. This is the purpose for which we were created – we, just like all the rest of creation, were created to bring glory to God. God doesn’t need us, or our worship, or our gifts – he is wholly self sufficient. We, as his creation, were created with a purpose and that purpose is the glorification of the one who made and sustains us. Our eternal purpose is that which ends in embracing the Father and the Son.
• Except through me – Jesus is the only one, the only way, and the only truth. The salvation that is provided by him, through his work on our behalf, and to his glory is the only salvation which exists by which men may be saved.

• All scripture
  • Paul here, speaking largely of the Tanakh, is speaking of that which is defined in the following text. Scripture is that which is inspired of God (not by God, as in, “in light of what I think God says, therefore I say this…” but “this is the Word of God, as given to us by God through His Holy Spirit”). That it is profitable for the believer and the unbeliever – the believer for training in righteousness, and the unbeliever for conviction of sin.
  • This can mean the whole of the old testament
    • The historical books which speak of God’s faithfulness despite human frailty and struggle to keep his law
    • The prophets who spoke directly to the people of God’s commands to repent lest the promises that he has given them (for destruction if they disobey) will come upon them all
    • The songs and spiritual writings that spoke of the worship of God and struggle that men had in light of the truth of God’s commands and message and the struggle that men have with trying to keep it on their own.
  • The facts of scripture point to the truth of God in how he defines himself, in who we are as creatures made by his hand for his purposes to his glory, and the promises of what is to come in the future through the words of his prophets and the promises found in his covenant words.
• “inspired”
  • Lit “breathed into” – that God is the one causing these things to take place. He is the speaker who spoke through his prophets, the authors of the historical books, and his song writers who recorded their thoughts that were created for our instruction.
• Profitable
  • Teaching
    • Instruction about that which pertains to God – that which covers the truthfulness of who God is and the facts about creation, sovereignty, the reasons for why things are as they are – the facts of what defines evil in the world, and how we can learn about purpose in this life.
  • Reproof
    • Reproof is the definition of that which is wrong and, specifically, that someone has violated that which is “right”. If truth is defined by scripture, then it is the standard by which we can evaluate everything else. If something is to be “wrong”, then it is that which scripture defines as wrong because it is in violation of that which scripture defines as “right”.
  • Correction
    • If reproof is the defining of something that’s wrong, correction is scripture speaking into the hearts of men to redirect their thoughts to their own failures so as to align them to that which is right.
  • Training in righteousness
    • The combination of teaching, reproof, and correction – when applied over time, result in “training in righteousness”. This “training” is the same as a soldier who “tests” his armor and his gear – to learn how to trust and rest in that trust of what he can and cannot do. Just as a football player will train to know the limits of what their pads can endure, and what the protection they are provided can accomplish for them so they become confident in their abilities in that armor. In the same way, a Christian, who is a student of scripture, learns to rest in the promises of Christ. We become, in a Romans 14 way, able to discern that which is and is not acceptable for those in Christ to endure – be it in the world, in our own lives, or in our interactions with others – both within the church and without. We also learn from the historical application of these things in the lives of those who have passed on before. This is the thrust of 1 Peter and Hebrews – that we, who are currently enduring hardship, can lean on the truthfulness of God as we endure these things, knowing that God is the one who sustains us, as he sustained those who came before and endured. All of this results in our training (testing applied) in righteousness.

v 17 – “so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

• So that
  • The practical application of the results of vs 16 is…
• the man of God
  • Those who are in Christ – the elect – who are empowered by the Holy Spirit to understand scripture, and who place ourselves under the tutelage of the text of scripture, knowing that it was written for us – first to those to whom it was originally intended to read it, but now to us who read it two millennia in the future, as we extract the truth of what was being said and apply it to our lives today.
• adequate
  • Also translated as “prepared” or “complete” – That our training in the truth of God would properly prepare us for the struggles of this life.
• equipped
  • God does not leave us to our own devices. He has provided scripture to us, and the Holy Spirit who lives with up, who teaches us the truth of God. Yes He will use our daily interactions in the world and with other Christians to provide object lessons to us, but the vast majority of our instruction comes from scripture alone. This equipping, given what we have learned from vs 16, is necessary for each Christian to not just review, but to bathe our very lives in. We should have such a firm grasp of that which God has provided to us that, if Christianity were outlawed tomorrow, we would have the word so indelibly catalogued in our hearts and minds that the loss of the text itself would mean very little to us because it would be the story and rest of our souls.
• for every good work
  • Everything that a man does, in his Christian witness, should be inspired by, and in reaction to, the Word of God. We do not depend on our own lives, our own experience, or our own feelings (which can ebb and flow every day based on the whims of our sinful hearts), but on the steadfast and sure Word of God. Our lives, now redeemed, are meant to be performed to the purpose of the truth of God deployed – this is the definition of “good works”. Not works that grant us merit before the hearts and minds of men, nor those which grant us social approval, but only that which glorifies our God and King – the one who took our place in suffering so that we would use our lives to His glory.

• Pay close attention
  • We must carefully evaluate our own ministry as given to us by God. Not on the basis of our own feelings or on comparison with what we assume others are doing. We, in a Romans 14 way, do not know the hearts or minds of people, nor do we know the work which God has placed on another person. We are only responsible for our own walk and our own work in keeping the commands of Christ. That said, we are responsible in that we have been given a ministry in God, fueled and enabled to act on the commands of God by both the empowering of the Holy Spirit, and provisioned for the work by the gifts we have received, and we will need to pursue it to the result that God is glorified through our actions. Not that these works save us, nor guarantee our salvation, but that they flow naturally from the heart of a changed and converted soul to the service of God.
  • We must not allow this statement to result in useless navel gazing – where our whole being is wrapped up in self critique. God knows our frame, our failures, our proclivities, and our struggles. He enables us to his service, knowing that we are failures who would rather serve ourselves than him any day of the week had we not been so empowered by his Holy Spirit inhabiting our conscience and our being.
• Yourself and to your teaching
  • We, as Christian leaders, are held to a higher standard. While others “can” do some things in the service of God, we cannot because we must be mindful of the fact that our office carries weight and authority. Whereas a lay leader may have a little more freedom in his Christian liberty, an elder or deacon does not have this right. We are, whether we like it or not, held to a higher standard by those in our circle of influence, and therefore while the actions of a normal church goer may have some minor influence on the view of the church of God in general and Christ in particular – those of the elder/deacon carry more weight. You only hear about a member of a church who violates the societal understanding of “Christian values” if they commit grievous societal sins, but an elder/deacon may have their name and reputation dragged through the mud for any list of presumed societal sins. It is because of this that the Christian leader must place significant scrutiny upon his own life (applied theology) and teaching (doctrinal instruction).
• Persevere
  • This is not a fun job nor is it enjoyable, but it is necessary. It is a daily struggle whereby we must pursue our own character and evaluate it by the example given by Christ. We will certainly fail, and we need to trust in the promises of God upon our lives, thanking and praising him for his faithfulness despite our own failures to keep his standard of perfection, but we must also ultimately understand that our continued failure to keep his standard may lead God to remove us from our position of authority.
• Save … yourself … others
  • Again, our salvation is bound in the finished work of Christ upon the cross, not in our own work, but our perseverance in the statements in 1 Tim 4 (show yourself as a model in word, conduct, love, faith, and purity; command and teach the truthfulness of the service of God; be nourished by the word of God and use it to fuel you to service; etc) will
    • save yourself
      • Again, not be the catalyst and guarantor of your salvation, but it will keep you focused on the continued service of God and you won’t have time for worldly pursuits which may entice you to serving self and worshipping your own desires.
    • save others
      • Your example will result in inspiring those in the church – in your circle of influence – to continue in pursuing their own personal holiness and service to God in their own lives. This has, as in your own life, the added effect of keeping your hearers from worldly pursuits, leading them to pursue Godly service in their own lives.
    • Conversely, terrible pastors – those who serve out of sense of duty, desire for wealth, or pursuit of power, lead others to terrible results as their implied and direct actions result in the expression of their applied theology.

“Do not say, ‘Why is it that the former days were better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”

Ecclesiastes 7:10 (ESV)

This is smack dab in the middle of a section of text where the “Preacher” (likely King Solomon) is explaining why it is better for those who have never lived than for those who were born. The book of Ecclesiastes is the scientific analysis of a life spent without God. The text is replete with mentions of a life spent “under the sun”, asserting that his perspective is from that of someone who is only focused on this world and does not consider the promises from God.

So why is it that this stood out to me? In the world we live in now, all anyone talks about is the “old days”. The days before covid, or this pervasive transgender ideology, or the days when our current president wasn’t our president, or before 9/11, or before the sexual revolution, or before the FED was created, or before anything else. Either you are in the progressive agenda of “whatever is new is right” or you are clamoring for what lies behind. The problem, as the Preacher states, is that this view is not from wisdom.

Wisdom is that which is wrought from struggle and obedience to the God of scripture. There is a wisdom that can be found in atheist or pagan ideals, but all of this is first found in scripture and its application in the life of the atheist/pagan is borne in the heart of that man which is drenched in the truth of the law of God in their conscience. So what is the wisdom that is lacking in the view that only points backward? It fails to see opportunities to grow. It fails to evaluate where we are now and to lead us forward to glorify God in the current realm. Anyone who spends their time looking back cannot clearly see that which lies in front of them and live their lives in a mere reactionary state.

Wisdom, however, teaches us that we have to trust in the God of scripture. All of what we are experiencing in this world has been given to happen by the God who created all of it. God is the author of the hearts of men, and as such, he controls nations to his ends. When a nation acts wickedly, God allows it to do so to their own hurt, but His direction is always to that which most glorifies Him and brings good for His people. Moreover, when a whole nation of people tolerates sin, God will, as John Calvin has famously said, give them wicked rulers. But the promises from God are for our ultimate good – for those who are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). Even in this age.

As the Preacher said, I also say to you. There is deep wickedness in this world, and it will probably continue to grow, but God knows all of this. He is still saving His elect from all the nations, using this pervasive evil in the world to lead us to Him alone as our only true savior and king. As the pain we experience in our hearts from the sinfulness and open acceptance of that which wars against God continues to grow, God uses this and the cries from the heart of His people to bring change in the hearts of the unconverted. Ultimately, however, God will always win in the end. Trust in our King, keep your eyes forward, and seek to serve God faithfully in all that we do. This world is not our home as our eternal abode is hid with Christ in God.

Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”

Psalm 2:1-6 (ESV)

4 sections

v 1-3 – A call to worship God for his continual and never ending love to his people

• Lovingkindness – a steadfast and unmoving love

v 4-32 – prudent response to the lord’s salvation

• 4-9 – A reminder of God’s direct actions in the lives of the Israelites in delivering them from both the threat of enemies and from hunger and need.
• 10-16 – God’s actions with those who rebel against him
  • 10-12 – Those who are in struggle and under judgement from God because of their rebellion against Him are being humbled through this judgement of God for the purpose of their repentance, not merely to punish them for their wrongdoing.
  • 13-14 – When those under God’s judgement come to themselves and repent, God is quick to come and deliver them from their struggles. God does not abandon his children, despite his judgement on them. All these things are done for a reason, and that reason is that they turn from their evil ways and come back to him.
  • 15-16 – Praise is the correct response to God when he delivers his people from their suffering.
• 17-22 – God’s actions with those who are foolish toward him
  • 17- God afflicts with judgement those who are rebellious due to their foolishness and flagrant sin against God.
  • 18 – The affliction they endured included an inability to eat due to sickness, and he bought them to the gates of death.
  • 19-20 – When they repent of their sin God restores them to health.
  • 21-22 -Praise is the correct response to God when he delivers his people from their suffering.
• 23-32 – God’s actions with those who place themselves in precarious situations for work or due to necessity.
  • 23-24 – These people know that they need to physically be there for this job but they are given the ability to know God more through his works among them.
  • 25-27 – God brings his storms upon them, and causing them all sorts of distress. All of this is to bring them to their God who will take care of them and their needs.
  • 28-30 -These mariners call out to God for deliverance, depending on God to meet their needs – to protect them and help them recover from their struggles.
  • 31-32 – Praise, once again, is the correct response to God when he delivers his people from their suffering.
• God may bring all sorts of testing upon his people, but it is always for the purpose of their continued reliance on God and that they would trust in him in all cases. In our direct suffering from our own actions, in sickness, or in our daily struggles – God is always our deliverance and we should always take time to trust in God and to thank him for his continued care for us and our souls.

v 33-42 – As Creator God, our Lord can do whatever he wants with his creation. We are merely stewards of these things in our midst, but he is their true owner. As a result, God can use all of these things to his own purposes at any time. God can afflict us, or bring blessing – test us, or give us rest. All of these things we endure come at the hand of God for his purposes, not our own. God hears our prayers and understands our response to his actions upon us, but all of this is done specifically to craft us into the people he needs to glorify himself and to extend his kingdom to the world. Just as a potter will use all manner of tools and force to transform a lump of clay into a beautiful vessel – perfectly fit for use for the job it is meant to perform, so God will craft our lives, our interactions, our struggles, and our successes so that we are perfectly suited to the tasks that he requires us to perform. Some tasks take a lifetime to perform. Others are performed one or twice before God takes out his tools and uses them on us again, reshaping us for another purpose so we can help others along their path, and so that the end result is always that God be glorified. We exist only at the whim of God and to bring him glory in all that we do. God is most glorified in us, when we make ourselves fully available to him – willing clay in the hands of our master potter.

v 43 – God loves and cares for us, and it is our right and responsibility to serve him completely. Let us praise our king for his love for us, and look and understand when we see the judgement of God on those whom we love. Let us pray for their repentance and deliverance from their King. Praise be to God for all that he does, and I hope that all people learn to trust in God as their creator, ruler, and king.

It is with regard to these internal struggles that he is warning them – that they should be on guard for spiritual battles more than those of the mere physical variety. We can always expect to have those outside the church warring against it – laws, politicians, common atheists, etc. But those inside the church appear to be part of our own community. These are the teachers who promise what the heart desires, more than what the Spirit commands.

The heart desires:

• Agreeableness
• Acceptance in the world
• Compromise between God’s standards with the world
• No need for repentance
• Acceptance of our pet sins

The Spirit commands:

• Obedience to the commands of Christ
• Relentless faith in the promises of Christ
• Understanding of our own sin struggles and therefore embracing open forgiveness to all who sin against us
• A life lived in constant repentance to our Savior and King

v 29 – “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;”

• Wolves – These do not seek out the strongest in the flock, but the weakest, and they prey upon the lame in the flock who cannot keep up with the rest of the herd. The herd defend against this attack, but only if it knows that it is there.
• The weak among us are those who are vacillating – with feet on both the world and the Word, who have not yet been trained by persecution and struggle to trust in the promises of God implicitly.
  • These are those who still ask “If God is good, then how can [something] happen”, whereas the one who is trusting in Christ knows that wickedness is in the world is a result of sin, and that no one is good before God, so the fact that God provides any earthly good, much less spiritual good, to anyone is a miracle in and of itself.
  • These are those who read the Bible with a mind to make it fit with their own narrative – their own lived experience. They are not serving the God of scripture, but a god of their own making, who seeks to serve them rather than demand that they conform to the image of the true Christ of scripture.
• In order to protect yourself against these wolves, you need to learn to embrace the God of Scripture on his own terms. You need to learn to step into that hammock of faith, and allow yourself to be swung out over the edge of that canyon with nothing to support you but the strings of the hammock, the steel of the frame, and the foundations of the arm that supports it.

v 30 – “and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”

• Among you – the scariest part of this is that we likely already know those in our midst who will later fall into heresies. Those whom we know and today believe to be soundly saved individuals, but who will later fall into self worship. We have seen this in our own day through the collapse of leaders such as Tullian Tchividjian, Josh Harris, Francis Chan, and Mark Driscoll – people who, 10 years ago, would have been gladly accepted in any of our pulpits but today are wholly disqualified – all by their own desires and likely through multiple rounds of compromise.
  • Tullian Tchividjian with his desire to serve self in his sexual sin.
  • Josh Harris and his desire to be welcomed and pleasing to all people, even those who embrace sin that God clearly despises.
  • Francis Chan and his desire to seek other “realms of faith” which allow him to accumulate vast amounts of wealth – a love of mammon.
  • Mark Driscoll and his desire to love himself so much that he openly accepted anything that agreed with his own preconceived notions, even to the harm of the flock that God provided to him.
• We should always be careful not to look at these men and their abandonment of their roles at the altar of self and think “well, that will never happen to me”. We should always be on guard ourselves – seeking to serve God in all that we are – bathing ourselves in the Word of God, and constantly recognizing our own struggles and daily repenting to Christ our savior, humbly acknowledging our battle against worship of self until we pass through that veil of death and step into eternity.

• In conclusion of this 3-chapter discussion, Paul now comes in for a complete landing.
• “Whether then” – Literally meaning, “whatever you do” – the “whatever” referring to the full context of what he has written in these last 3 chapters.
  • Whether you eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols – which those with the knowledge of these things understand that the idols are nothing, and therefore they can neither impart nor infer any power or glory or magic juju upon that meal and so benefit the eater.
  • Whether you drink – this is just a statement in relation to eating, yet had not been included thus far, but is an extension of the foundational discussion about eating meat (sacrificed to idols). If eating, then drinking should be assumed, and if that, then all aspects of the meal and, by extension, all aspects of our lives.
  • Whatever you do – this is the conclusion of his thought – again mirrored in Romans 14:6,16-18,22-23 – whatever we do in our lives, we should do so with a clear conscience. The Holy Spirit weighs on our conscience and leading us away from that which is sin, and driving us to that which brings God glory. We should feed our conscience through both the reading and understanding of scripture, and by obeying our conscience, which strengthens it and helps us to learn to put our full weight in its leading.
• Do all to the glory of God – That which was already communicated in Romans 14, is reiterated here:
  • That we should place as our primary focus that we are serving God directly.
  • That our driving purpose, as was that of Jesus, should be only that which glorifies GOD in all things, not that which glorifies ourselves.
  • This may mean that we forsake our Christian liberty – our freedom in Christ – which allows us to have that which we know is not bad for us, so long as it may harm the witness of others if they violate their God-given and Spirit-fueled conscience and partake with us.

v 10:32 – “Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God;”

• Give no offense – This partners with the coming statement about serving God in our actions – that we should never use our knowledge, nor our Christian liberty, to lord it over people. This comes from pride and adds nothing to our witness except that it harms those who are not in our camp.
• Either to Jews/Greeks/the church of God – This is a neat distinction. We should not focus on delineations that the world sees – skin color, national identity, nor perceived racial identity. We should see people in 3 groups:
  • Jews – those who know the laws of God but are not yet Christians
  • Greeks – literally just those who are not Jews and who are not yet Christians
  • Church of God – those who are Christians – composed of both the Jews and Greeks noted above

v 10:33 – “just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.”

• Just as I also please all men – Not a “man pleaser” as in someone who is focused on what people in the world think of him, but as someone who is acutely attuned to the attitudes and impact of what he says and does, so that God is the one who is glorified in all that he does.
• Not seeking my own profit – In our lives before God converted us, we were only ever seeking our own personal profit. Whatever glorified us, whatever satisfied us, whatever we desired, whatever the cost, this was our pursuit. Now that we have been converted, our hearts and minds no longer seek the things which glorify ourselves. When we sin and pursue these things, we realize afterward that they do not bring any lasting joy and only a reminder of our sin before our creator who died in our place to save us from the consequences of this way of thinking and our desire to please ourselves. Therefore Paul here makes the point that he does not do any of these things in a self-serving way, so that it quells anyone who may think that he is pursuing this to his own glory.
• So that they may be saved – Here is the true reason that he is willing to reject that which he is entitled to receive or pursue. As someone who has a firm understanding of what it is that God has given him, as well as the truth of scripture and its application in every day life – that he may eat whatever he wants because the idols to which it was sacrificed is nothing but a mute hunk of stone, wood, or metal – Paul may partake in any of these things with a clear conscience, but he forsakes that right for a higher calling – that of the salvation of all that he encounters. He rejects his own personal rights in these things so that his witness will remain untarnished, and so that he may have the best opportunity to present the Gospel of God with nothing hindering his communication of these truths.

v 11:1 – “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”

• Paul now concludes his message as a reminder that he did not get this teaching and instruction from any strange or random source, but from Jesus in his own life and actions. Jesus forsook everything – his place in heaven, his glory before all, and his unapproachable beauty and purity – so that he could come down to the earth, live among his creation, serve them, grieve with them, celebrate with them, and ultimately die for them – even those who blasphemed his name, his authority, and his ministry to their own glory, God the Son died for them, while they attacked and mocked him. Jesus gave up everything to embrace the temporary madness of humanity as he was the only one who could keep the law of God perfectly, and therefore become that perfect sacrifice on behalf of his elect – to his glory and the ultimate good of every one for whom he died.
• Paul imitates Jesus the Christ in his rejection of the things that he is entitled to receive for the service of those in his circle of influence. We should mirror this sacrifice, as imitators of Paul who was an imitator of Christ.

• All things are lawful – Some commentators have said that Paul’s use of the term “All things are lawful” to be a reference to what appears to be the Corinthian societal modus operandi, where they lived lives in epicurean indulgence – taking everything to themselves in pursuit of personal happiness. The American societal modus operandi seems to follow along with this directly. This may have also been a reference to something that they had written to him, that the people, while understanding that there are no dietary restrictions as per the command of Christ in Mark 7:19, and the latter revelation of this fact in the repeated visions to Peter in Joppa (Acts 10), perceived that all things are, as they are in reality, lawful. There exists no law as regards food for those who are in Christ Jesus.
• Not all things are profitable / edify – Paul tempers this true statement with a reminder that all things must be used properly if they are to be profitable to the Christian, and to edify (teach or provide instruction to) those around us. While we may live in Christian liberty to do as we please if we do so bringing God the full glory for all things that he deserves – in his salvation by which we can enjoy these things, in the creation of these things that we use to glorify him, and in the experience of the joy we feel while we rightly and justly experience the things he has given us to enjoy – we must also be mindful in our experience these things not only for our own regard, but also the regard of those around us who may not yet be at the knowledge that this kind of worship demands.
• Paul repeats this statement to reiterate the importance of the message.

v 24 – “Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.”

• Speaking of this balance of the exercise of our Christian liberty and the tempered view of this while directed at our younger brothers and sisters in the faith, Paul reminds the readers of his focus of the last two chapters – that while we may have an expansive list of things that we can partake in, it must be used carefully – not to please ourselves, but most importantly, that we must seek the good of our neighbors – those in our Christian community first, then in our sphere of influence in the world second.

v 25-26 – “Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience’ sake; For the earth is the Lord’s and all that it contains.”

• Eat anything 1 – Paul, now bringing this conversation to a theoretical dinner party so as to provide examples of his personal application of the truths he has explained in the last 2 chapters, seems to contradict what he had said above. While he had stated in numerous statements that he had intended to “never eat meat” if it means that he will not cause anyone to stumble in their faith, as many in both Corinth in particular, but also in the whole Roman ruled world, had grown up in this pagan society and had been so seared against eating meat sacrificed to idols, that they may never be able to, with a clear conscience, eat what had been sacrificed to idols.
• Eat anything 2 – For those that can accept it, whose conscience is clear in this matter, Paul provides the facts that back up the truth of this statement;
• For the earth… – God is the sovereign ruler and creator of the earth. All things belong to him – all the hills and the cattle on those hills. Man sacrificing anything to any demon or false deity or anything does not impart to it any power or authority or anything at all. As Jesus has said in Mark 7:19, eating anything does not make the person who ate it unclean, nor does it add any cleanness to the person itself. Only those things sacrificed to the true God have anything imparted to them, as the meat sacrificed to God is set apart for holy use, and therefore must be used in that holy manner – and eaten either in worship of God in the feast of the firstfruits, or by the priests of God as their given portion from God.
• Conscience – Our conscience is a God-given tool which allows us, even before we are converted, to determine that which glorifies God and that which does not. It is the promised package of God’s commands which are present in our hearts and minds which tell us that which is and is not in line with God’s laws and commands. As we grow, as heathen children, we learn to quell our desire to hold to that which God commands, stiffening our necks and pursuing our own desires – this is the essence of the original sin which remains in the hearts of all mankind. Eventually, and with enough repeated sin, our moral core eventually quiets down and stops responding to us. It goes dormant and we are left to the societal mores which align with that of the people around us, and we merely go with the flow – being careful not to pursue anything that those closest to us would abhor. When God chooses to save his elect, the Holy Spirit then reactivates this cold and dead conscience within us – pointing us back to the truth of God, revealing our distance from the God and king of our creation, from our original role of bringing him glory, and a pressing reminder that the just result of our sins against our creator is death. God places people into our lives who direct our thoughts back continually to the things of God.  Eventually the buildup of this truth becomes so much that we cannot ignore it. We finally burst forth in praise of God, acknowledging our sin before him, repenting of our lives spent in self-adoration, self-adulation, and self-glorification. We refer to this last part as our “rebirth experience”, but this real work began months or years prior when God first alights upon our hearts and minds and re-ignites our conscience, regenerating us and driving us to the point of our external acknowledgement of our completed conversion.
• Without asking questions – Going back to the portion of this sentence I deliberately skipped so as to finish the explanation above – this part brings up an important distinction.  Why is it that we should not ask? Should we not pursue right actions in all things? Our Spirit-fueled conscience is a fickle thing. Once our conscience realizes something, once it recognizes that something is a sin, it is a real sin for you to commit. Romans 14:23 makes this clear. Therefore, for the sake of your conscience, there is no problem where there is no conviction by the conscience upon us. We absolutely should review all things, and if our conscience is clear, then we should pursue that which we desire, so long as it does not violate any of God’s other commands. But, if our own conscience is violated, or the conscience of those around us, we should remove ourselves so as to give room for the direction of the Holy Spirit in these regards.

v 27 – “If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake.”

• I mean, duh. We just went over all of this.

v 28 – “But if anyone says to you, ‘This is meat sacrificed to idols,’ do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience’ sake;’”

• Says to you – Remember that there may be many reasons for them to tell you this information.
  • They could be a fellow believer, attempting to warn you. For their sake, and the sake of their conscience, we should refrain.
  • They could be a generic person just making a comment, but now that you know it has been sacrificed to idols, the facts are known to you, and you must then refrain.
  • They could be trying to do a “gotcha” to you, because they assume that you are offended by this, and you should therefore refrain because it may damage your witness before this person.

v 29-30 – “I mean not your own conscience, but the other man’s; for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?”

• Our conscience, for those who are mature in our faith and who understand these things, is clear. We can eat whatever is sacrificed to any old idol because the idol itself is nothing, our consumption of the meat does not impart to us anything because there is no power or truth in the demon that these animals were sacrificed to, and therefore the steak is just that – steak – which God has created for us to enjoy – to our bodily benefit and to our culinary joy. We, as the coming verses will explain, have no need to curtail any of these desires that do not violate God’s direct commands, but it is right to do so for the sake of others, should their conscience be at risk, for the ultimate goal of our partaking of these things – the glorification of our creator, redeemer, and king.

• Therefore – This refers to the section of text from 1 Corinthians 10:1-11, where Paul explores the facts of the Exodus and how God had judged those who were part of the exodus experience, who were delivered from Egypt through the direct workings of God through miracles that no one could brush away as mere misunderstandings, and who stood before the God of all creation in blazing fire and smoke and who spoke with the people directly and when God spoke there was an earthquake that happened the whole time while God spoke to the people, yet these people still saw fit to blame God for their issues instead of humbly asking God for what they wanted. They battled with God at every turn, revolting against His just rule over them, grumbling at his decisions, and refusing to listen to those whom God had chosen to serve Him.
• Let him who thinks he stands – If God so treated the Israelites, his chosen people, in this way when they revolted against him, we should never take advantage of the grace and mercy of God and use it as an excuse to sin. We should never just “settle into our salvation”, kick our feet up, and assume it is an easy coast into glory. The life of a Christian is a constant battle against our human desires for self-worship and self-gratification, and as a battle, we need to be always on guard because these attacks can come at any time. We must not pridefully trust in our own abilities, or to place our confidence in our church membership, our faithful giving, our weekly service to God, or the books we have read, but we must instead trust in the finished work of Christ alone, realizing the frailty of our convictions and foundations when we trust in our own abilities to save us. We are saved only through the work of God alone, and we are maintained only through His continued work our lives. If God chose to take away his hand from us we would immediately be swept away in the sinful desires of our hearts and be far worse off than we were at the first – unable to control our desires for self-gratification, but now knowing the commands of God against such things.
• Take heed, that he does not fall – As always, those who are truly in the Lord are saved for all time. The work that Jesus began in our hearts and minds will see itself through to completion. That said, we are not promised a life of ease and comfort. The strongest tree is that with deep roots that are strengthened by strong winds and heavy snow. We, as Christians, need to be mindful that we will be tested and tempted. Testing from God, as Abraham endured, which is intended to reveal to God the strength of our trust in God over our desires to sin and to serve ourselves, and temptations which are always present in our lives. Paul brings this up in Romans 7:21 when he states that when he desires to do that which most honors God, temptations to serve self are always present. If this happens even for Paul – the apostle to the Gentiles and church planter to the world, who are we to think that we are immune to such things? While we may be able to endure many things, following the promises of Romans 5:1-5, we do not stand firm in this by our own power or strength, but by the power of God who maintains us and our sanctification. For those of the elect, God may allow you to “fall” into a specific sin, to help you to see that you are not held by your own abilities, or even into a season of continual sin, so that God can both reveal to you that your own pride in your salvation is misplaced if it is rooted in your own abilities, and also so that you will be equipped to help those down the road of your life who are also so afflicted.

v 13 – “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptations will provide the way of escape also, so that you are able to endure it.”

• No temptation … common to man – Satan and our own desires, try to get us to separate ourselves from other Christians by convincing us that our sinful desires are both reprehensible to other humans, but also wholly unique to us alone. This separates us from those who can come alongside of us and help us to pursue righteousness. It is as if lions on the desert plains of the Serengeti, instead of chasing down the weak, merely convinced the weak wildebeest to come and hang out with them as friends, and later devoured it at their own pleasure. Paul reminds these Corinthian believers that their struggles with sin are not unique, they are not new, and they are not unknown to every other person. All of us have the same struggles, the same desires for self, and if we understand this and seek help, trusting in the finished work of Christ, trusting in the fact that God knows our frail natures and our inability to maintain ourselves, and trusting in the fact that we, as Christians, are Christians in community and our fellow believers and elders are there to help us in our struggles.
• God is faithful – God has always been there for the Israelites, even in their deepest rebellion against him, should they turn and repent. God has always provided judges and prophets who call out to the people, pleading with them to turn from their self-worship and to turn back to him in faithful obedience. God promised that he would always be there to save them, should they repent and trust in him.
• Way of escape – God always provides a way to get out of our sins, and we typically only see them afterward. But as we become more and more faithful in our obedience to Christ, we also become more and more comfortable leaning on Him for all of our needs. God is not so far removed from us, nor dedicated to other more important things, that he will not stop everything to hear our hearts desire and to help us in our hour of need. He even commands us to do so. We are to keep our hearts and minds always in prayer to God – seeking his help in everything. Christianity is not a religion of self-glorification for those who are powerful, but for those who are weak, humbled, and broken. God does not desire mere outward obedience, but obedience that is from the heart. As David says in Ps 51:17- “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Our strongest moment of our faith is that when we are most acutely aware of our inability to save ourselves, and when we lean the strongest upon God alone to save us.

v 14 – “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

• Therefore … Flee – Given everything said above, we are not to stand in our own foolish pride, thinking that we can maintain our salvation in mere obedience, but to trust in God alone for our continued sanctification – to recognize our struggles and our sin triggers and, in humility, to flee from those things that will lead us to sin.

• Paul now changes the subject to something about which they had reached out to him, likely via a letter that made its way to him.
• He states something that, to us, seems a little strange – “it is good for a man not to touch a woman”. This is the beginning of this chapter, and this section about which he is discussing where he covers the facts about marriage and sexual desire in the face of persecution – from the Roman government and Jews alike. Also, given the view of scripture and its commands and how this is largely unknown by these gentile believers, they are asking the simple question that all baby Christians has – “how now shall we live?”. In this section, Paul will make some simple Biblical council, both from his own opinion and directly from the Lord, about how to handle many aspects of our lives as regards romantic relations. He explores questions about:
  • Mitigating immoral thought life
  • Whether or not one should pursue marriage given their present distress / persecution
  • Whether or not believers should remain in marriage with unbelievers
  • Salvation of children in a family of unequally yoked parents
  • And more…
• Now, to the point of this sentence, it is good that a man not pursue relations with a woman, and vice versa, for the sake of the gospel itself. This is a statement that he first begins, but later finishes this thought in verse 26 and following. In verses 2-25 Paul explores the many issues that exist in relationships that may cause struggles in their pursuit of Christ. Given their present distress in the form of threats of persecution and even death if they are to be caught serving Christ and not Caesar. He will later go into more detail that the married person has a requirement to serve their spouse and family, and they may not have the necessary freedom to flee from place to place, or to go to a far off country at the drop of a hat to serve God wherever they may be called.

v 2 – “But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.”

• Now, given his controversial opening statement, Paul now tempers that for those who are both currently married and those who are pursuing marriage. The vast majority of humans on this planet have sexual desires – be they pure or impure. Given this prevalent struggle, God has provided a way of escape from those desires (which again is not to say that these desires are inherently sinful, but they can become sinful if they are made to be primary things in our lives) – marriage. The marriage bed is undefiled, and therefore spending your sexual energies on your spouse relieves you from pursuing those same desires in immoral ways.
• Paul declares here that marriage is a good thing for the sake of our inborn proclivities toward sexual sin. For some people, (the vast majority, really) sexual desires can become overwhelming, and for those people marriage is the God-given process by which we are to end those desires.
• Also, for the sake of procreation, marriage is a good thing.

v 3 – “The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.”

• Paul clearly states that, for the sake of sexual sin and desires, the responsibility for resolving those issues falls to the marriage partner (husband to his wife, and wife to her husband) so as to maintain purity within the home.

v 4 – “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own boy, but the wife does.”

• Going into more detail, Paul fills out this idea found in vs 2-3 by revealing that in a marriage covenant each member has forsaken autonomy for the sake of the combined marriage relationship. The husband does not have authority to refuse sexual relations with his wife, nor does the wife have authority to refuse sexual relations to her husband. They have come together in a covenant between the husband, wife and the God of their salvation, to build one another up, and to support one another. This is alluded to in the relationship between people and their church, as it also is mirrored in the relationship between Christ and His Church.
• The man must not prevent his wife from resolving her sexual desires as he must also not ignore her other sin areas for the sake of his own freedom, and the wife, likewise, has the same command.

v 5 – “Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer,and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

• Sexual temptations can cause all sorts of issues if left unchecked. Paul commands the people in Corinth to stop depriving one another from sexual relations. This appears to have been one of the questions that they had asked him in their letter, and it seems that they have been pursuing abstinence for the sake of some sort of purity. Maybe they had a large group of people in the church who were influenced by the Stoics who believe that freedom from desire and things is the path to purity. Paul, however, shoots that idea down unless it is only for a short period of time. The reason for this stance is that Paul, knowing human kind, also knows that our desires are Satan’s playground, and that it becomes an easy entry point for a seed of both discord and sin. To that end, sexual relations in a marriage should not be forsaken except by agreement for certain reasons, and even then only for a very short period of time.
• The goal here is sanctification, not sexual fulfillment, but the marriage bed is used for the purification of those desires and therefore should not be neglected or abandoned.